The Smartwatch – Still Hot Or Not?

We all know the smartwatch, that little piece of tech that people scrambled to get their hands on when it first hit the markets. No wrist was complete without it, and old style analogue watches receives sneers and smirks from those who were technologically advanced.

But how popular is it now? Has it really taken off or will it go the way that Google predicted most wearable tech will, which is by the wayside?

Exorbitant Cost – Now Cheap As Chips

When they first came out, smartwatches were elite little pieces that cost a small fortune. Only a few companies offered them, and they had to be paired with that particular device which ran a particular operating system.

Having a smartwatch advertised your status as well as what type of phone you had and let you play the online casino games New Zealand has to offer on your wrist. Now, however, you can buy a cheap Chinese knock-off for next to nothing, no longer the realm of the elite, any Joe Blog can get his hands on one and pair it with pretty much any smart device he has.

Mobility Issues

Yes, a watch is mobile, but the smartwatch is only useful if it is in range of its mother device. The bonus to this was that you could check messages and manage your life quickly on your wrist, but you would still have to have your phone or tablet somewhere nearby or on your person.

This means that if you forget your phone somewhere, your watch is pretty much useless.

Lost Notifications

Let’s face it, the main point in a smartwatch is to have a second screen on which to receive notifications. We don’t have to pull our phone out of wherever they, unlock and read whatever communication we have received. With many smartwatches, however, notifications get lost, which rather defeats their purpose.

A missed email or phone call may have disastrous results, especially as your phone will quite likely be on silent due to having a smartwatch that is supposed to light up and notify you visually.

Battery Life

It seems like everything these days runs on a rechargeable battery; books, computers, phones, even cigarettes. Having yet another device to charge at the end of a day is quite often simply not practical. Some watches do, of course, have long battery lives, but most barely get you through the day.

This can be a huge inconvenience both when you need to go somewhere but you have forgotten to charge your watch, or it simply has run out of power.

One Handed Use

The smartwatch was meant to usher in a new time where one would not have to use both hands to manipulate technology, leaving the other hand free for important things like coffee or that quick online slots Canada game you didnt have time for over the weekend.

Although great in theory, this never really happened, as one still has to use the second hand to update or implement any software changes.

In Conclusion

Google stood quite firm in their stance that wearable tech was not going to catch on. We have yet to really know one way or another, but statistics show that smartwatches have taken a definite decline in popularity in recent years.

Looking good at their implementation, they never really took off as much as many of their parent companies wished they would. Perhaps a new advancement will refresh them in the future, but we will have to just wait and see.